# Edward Brooke *Republican United States Senator from Massachusetts who co-sponsored, with Walter Mondale, the fair housing amendment enacted as Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968* Edward Brooke, a Republican senator from Massachusetts, appears in the Minnesota record as the co-sponsor, with Senator [[Walter Mondale]] of Minnesota, of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. The two offered it as an amendment to the civil rights bill then pending in the Senate.[^1] The provision was enacted as Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968.[^2] President [[Lyndon Johnson]] signed that act on April 11, 1968.[^3] The record documents Brooke's role through two sources. One is an exhibit on Mondale's Senate work published by the [[University of Minnesota]] Law Library. The other is the project's Time Table row, which describes the 1968 law as having a "bipartisan architecture."[^4] The record does not carry a biography of Brooke, his term of service, or his roll-call votes. It does not establish his reasons for sponsoring the measure.[^1] Fifty-eight years after the 1968 enactment, the [[United States Department of Justice]] sued the State of Minnesota under [[Title VII]] of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]]. The release announcing that suit uses the term "Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime."[^9] That action does not name Brooke. It is summarized below as part of the federal civil-rights record in which the 1968 law sits.[^10] ## Who - **Edward Brooke (R-MA):** Brooke co-sponsored the Fair Housing Act of 1968 with Mondale.[^1] - **Walter Mondale:** Mondale was a Democrat in Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. Governor [[Karl Rolvaag]] appointed him to the U.S. Senate after [[Hubert Humphrey]] was elected Vice President in 1964, and he served in the Senate through 1976.[^2] - **Everett Dirksen (R-IL):** Dirksen introduced the less comprehensive fair housing legislation for which Mondale and Brooke set aside their own bill.[^6] ## What The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited housing discrimination in any program receiving federal assistance. The Law Library exhibit states that this provision "was rarely enforced" and did not reach the sale or rental of privately owned housing.[^5] The 1968 law that Brooke co-sponsored prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of dwellings. As enacted, it covered discrimination based on race, color, religion and national origin. Later amendments added sex, familial status and handicap.[^3] The Minnesota Historical Society describes the measure as having outlawed discrimination in the selling or renting of most types of housing. The Society records that it passed as Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968.[^2] ## When - **1966 and 1967:** Open housing legislation failed to pass Congress in both years.[^2] - **Summer 1967:** Hearings were held on Mondale's housing bill. The bill did not leave committee.[^5] - **1968:** Mondale and Brooke sponsored the Fair Housing Act of 1968 as an amendment to the pending civil rights bill.[^1] - **March 11, 1968:** The Senate passed H.R. 2516, the Civil Rights Act of 1968, including its fair housing requirements. The bill then went to the House, where changes to weaken it were expected.[^6] - **April 4, 1968:** Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.[^7] - **April 5, 1968:** Mondale urged Congress on the Senate floor to act "by immediately passing the 1968 civil rights bill."[^7] - **April 10, 1968:** Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, and the expected weakening changes did not occur.[^3] - **April 11, 1968:** Johnson signed the act into law.[^3] - **April 11, 1968:** The project's Time Table records Mondale and Brooke as co-authors of Title VIII under this date.[^4] ## Why The Law Library exhibit records the arguments made in the floor debate. - **Opponents** called the bill "obnoxious" and "discrimination in reverse." They also said it was "robbing all Americans of their basic rights of private property."[^6] - **Proponents** called fair housing "morally right," "economically sound," "socially responsible," and "legally and constitutionally correct."[^6] The exhibit states that the cause was "gaining bipartisan support among Northern senators" as debate went on.[^6] The source records these positions. It does not establish why Brooke, or any other individual senator, took the position he did.[^1] ## How The exhibit records that a filibuster by opponents continued to threaten the bill. To ensure that a fair housing law passed, Mondale and Brooke tabled their own legislation. This cleared the way for Dirksen's slightly less comprehensive measure.[^6] The Minnesota Historical Society attributes the bill's eventual passage to months of negotiations by Mondale and his allies.[^2] ## In the Minnesota record ### Who Proclamation 10185, issued on April 20, 2021, marked Mondale's death. It credits him as a senator with having been "instrumental in the passage of The Fair Housing Act to combat racial discrimination in housing."[^8] The proclamation does not name Brooke.[^8] The University of Minnesota exhibit names Brooke as Mondale's co-sponsor.[^1] ### What **The release.** The Department of Justice's Office of Public Affairs issued release No. 26-21 on January 14, 2026. Its title is *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*. The release states that Attorney General Pamela Bondi certified the case as a matter of general public importance.[^9] The project's catalogue of U.S.-government "regime" usages finds that no other U.S. state has been so described. That is a finding of the catalogue, not of the release.[^9] **The complaint.** The complaint in [[United States v. State of Minnesota (0:26-cv-00273)]] was brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. According to DOJ, it cites [[Minn. Stat. § 43A.191]] eight times. These citations include subdivision 3(c), which requires an agency to explain the reason for hiring a non-affirmative candidate.[^10] The record here shows the filing. It does not carry a ruling or a later docket entry.[^10] **The Ames decision.** In *[[Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services]]*, 605 U.S. 303 (2025), the Supreme Court held that Title VII's disparate-treatment provision "draws no distinctions between majority-group plaintiffs and minority-group plaintiffs." The Court rejected the Sixth Circuit's heightened "background circumstances" rule for majority-group plaintiffs.[^11] ### When - **April 11, 1968:** The fair housing title co-sponsored by Brooke (R-MA) and Mondale (DFL-MN) was signed into law.[^3][^4] - **January 14, 2026:** The complaint in No. 0:26-cv-00273 was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.[^10] ## Notes [^1]: University of Minnesota Law Library, *Civil Rights / Fair Housing*, in the digital exhibit *Walter F. Mondale – Spokesman for Reform and Justice in the U.S. Senate* (page dated 10/31/2014) — states that Senator Mondale, with Senator Brooke (R-MA), sponsored the Fair Housing Act of 1968 as an amendment to the pending civil rights bill. https://mondale-librarycollections.law.umn.edu/civil-rights-fair-housing [^2]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Walter F. Mondale Biography* (undated) — records Mondale's party, his 1964 Senate appointment by Rolvaag, the 1966 and 1967 failures of open housing legislation, and the bill's passage as Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. https://www.mnhs.org/mondale/biography [^3]: University of Minnesota Law Library, *Civil Rights / Fair Housing* (page dated 10/31/2014) — records congressional passage on April 10, 1968, Johnson's signature on April 11, 1968, the law's prohibitions, and the later amendments. https://mondale-librarycollections.law.umn.edu/civil-rights-fair-housing [^4]: Minnesota wiki Time Table, row TL-0206 (Apr. 11, 1968) — records that Mondale co-authored Title VIII with Brooke (R-MA), describing it as a "bipartisan architecture." https://mondale-librarycollections.law.umn.edu/civil-rights-fair-housing [^5]: University of Minnesota Law Library, *Civil Rights / Fair Housing* (page dated 10/31/2014) — describes the limits of the 1964 Act's housing provision and the summer 1967 hearings on Mondale's bill. https://mondale-librarycollections.law.umn.edu/civil-rights-fair-housing [^6]: University of Minnesota Law Library, *Civil Rights / Fair Housing* (page dated 10/31/2014) — records the debate language, the filibuster threat, the tabling of the Mondale–Brooke bill for Dirksen's measure, and Senate passage of H.R. 2516 on March 11, 1968. https://mondale-librarycollections.law.umn.edu/civil-rights-fair-housing [^7]: University of Minnesota Law Library, *Civil Rights / Fair Housing* (page dated 10/31/2014) — records King's assassination on April 4, 1968, and Mondale's Senate floor statement of April 5, 1968 (citing 114 *Congressional Record* 9138). https://mondale-librarycollections.law.umn.edu/civil-rights-fair-housing [^8]: The President of the United States, *Proclamation 10185 of April 20, 2021: Death of Walter Mondale*, 86 Fed. Reg. 21633 (Apr. 23, 2021) — credits Mondale with the passage of the Fair Housing Act; does not name Brooke. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2021-04-23/pdf/2021-08655.pdf [^9]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*, release No. 26-21 (Jan. 14, 2026) — announces the lawsuit and Attorney General Bondi's certification. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-department-justice-files-lawsuit-against-minnesotas-affirmative-action-regime [^10]: U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, *Complaint, United States v. State of Minnesota*, No. 0:26-cv-00273 (D. Minn. filed Jan. 14, 2026) — brought under Title VII; cites Minn. Stat. § 43A.191 eight times, including subd. 3(c). https://www.justice.gov/crt/media/1423361/dl [^11]: Supreme Court of the United States, *Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services*, 605 U.S. 303 (2025) — holds that Title VII's disparate-treatment provision draws no distinction between majority-group and minority-group plaintiffs; rejects the "background circumstances" rule. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/23-1039_c0n2.pdf